Apple have removed several apps from the store which are sharing location data of users without their consent. The sharing of the location to third parties is a breach of the company’s policy according to the sections of 5.1.1 and 5.1.2 of the company’s App Store guidelines which explicitly state that apps must not transmit the “user location data” to the third parties without the express consent of the user. Many developers are thinking this sudden enforcement of rules is due to the General Data Protection Regulation which comes into effect on May 25th.
Under these new rules, the tech companies will need to have explicit consent from the user and must be informed of which the third party the data is being shared with and how it is used. Developers are notified to remove any code that will share the location with the third parties and should resubmit the app for the review process. If the app is approved they will again listed in the App store.
“You may not use or transmit someone’s personal data without first obtaining their permission and providing access to information about how and where the data will be used.”
“Data collected from apps may not be used or shared with third parties for purposes unrelated to improving the user experience or software/hardware performance connected to the app’s functionality.”
There are many questions that apps still don’t ask permission from users for, hopefully in future there will be a greater transparency.
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